Coming in through the clouds

Change

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 09:00:00 +0000

“Michael Gove has been allowed to rush through educational reforms and his academies and free schools projects based on little or no evidence.” Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor, The Guardian, 1st Jan 2013 Change can be a scary thing. I’m not its greatest fan. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always bad. I can accept that. But Gove’s insistence on change within the education sector with little or no evidence to justify itself could be devastating. Instead of peer reviewed evidence and an informed decision, we are having to rely on hope and luck that these reforms will have benefit to out students - making that lack of belief in the changes that so many teachers seem to share all the more ominous. Hey, you never know: maybe our educators can find a way to make the most out of this for the benefit of our young people. Fingers crossed.

iam8bit I used to draw and paint on wood all the time. It gives...

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:59:33 +0100

iam8bit

I used to draw and paint on wood all the time. It gives a lovely texture to everything and has a kind of honesty to it as a medium on which to work. It shows exactly what it is, grain and all. In an artform where one of the most prevalent ideas is ‘let’s make this stuff look like something else’, I find it quite refreshing.

Boris

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 10:42:43 +0100

Boris:

‘Put simply, Dave looks like a loser, Boris looks like a winner.’

In their efforts to appeal to everyone out there, politics has long suffered an absence of character at the top. Cameron is a prime, dull, run-of-the-mill example of someone trying to appear more substance than style. The problem is that logic (or at least the appearance of it) can only go so far in winning the hearts and minds of the public. The hearts need something more to be won. We need a personality that can focus us - grab our attention and make us be live that ‘we can’.
Whether I agree or not with his politics is besides the point; it is the unashamed freedom of character that I like with Boris. I hope this is the start of a trend of style ALONGSIDE substance.

Why I don't like your 7"

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:34:00 +0100

The Kindle Fire and the Nexus 7 are supposed to be big challengers to the world of tablet computing - and my that I mean the iPad. While I think they might make some good sales, I don’t think that the paradigm of 7” tablets is one in which I have any interest. And I don’t think it has a sustainable future.

The issue for me is one of ‘why’? While a 7” screen might be good for reading, the devices are still too heavy to provide enough benefit over a dedicated, lightweight e-reader such as the kindle. Some might say that the greater versatility of a tablet might trump an e-reader, there is very little that a tablet at this size can do that can’t be done on a 4” smartphone. If you are taking your smartphone with you anyway, you might as well get a cheaper, lighter, more easy to read from e-reader rather than carry something that overlaps in functionality with something you already have with you. It is only when you get to the 10” range that added functionality starts to make the extra effort of transporting it worth while.

And by added functionality, I mean the device starts to do more of what we expect a ‘main’ device to do. Movies and games might be better on a bigger screen, but word processing and other everyday creative tasks NEED the bigger screen to provide proper functionality. The 7” just doesn’t have the space to do more complicated tasks comfortably. You need to be at the 10” size or bigger. However, as you move past the 10” size, the device becomes a more significant thing to transport around. If you need a bigger screen, then you are moving past the portable device stage. These larger screens are not easily portable, so trying to make them so is counter intuitive. Unless it folds up much smaller, it would be better to have anything past 10” as something you would rarely move, like a TV. Nobody buys a portable 21” TV, so why do it with computers?

Instead, these larger devices should be stationary - linked via the cloud to all your files, or simply acting as a screen to your smaller device. Allowing other people to easily connect to this screen would be more beneficial than having it duplicate any functionality of the 10” device (on condition that the 10” device fulfils its role as a main device and not a secondary device to another computer - why have two when one will do?), as this would mean others need only bring and connect their portable devices (or just sign in via the cloud), rather than lug a larger device around when wishing to share things. We end up with three devices - one which is supremely portable, like a phone or super-watch-thing (and very personal); one which is a portable workstation or hub (which would be easier to share with others as you wouldn’t always want it on your person); and one which is a bigger screen for sustained interaction (and more open to sharing than the other two). There is no need for a 7” anywhere in this - it always overlaps with something you might already have that has greater advantages. It’s best place is as an e-reader - but then you might as well get a dedicated e-reader which would serve that role better anyway.

Eventually, as the supremely portable device becomes more powerful, or at least offsets some of the power demands made upon it by outsourcing them to the cloud, the middle device becomes less needed - on the condition that there is easy access to the larger devices for reasons of functionality explained previously. Developing some kind of augmented reality (personal or projected) into the supremely portable device eventually renders both other devices obsolete as the ‘screen’ becomes ‘virtual’, not physical. But there is still no place for a 7” in any of this.

So, have fun with it while you can; because as far as I can see, the only point in having a 7” in your home is if it vibrates and you hide it away when your in-laws visit.

ARM Once upon a time, power was everything. There was a spec...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:04:26 +0100

ARM

Once upon a time, power was everything. There was a spec race and the winner was due to take all. But now, as the limits off silicon become more aparent, we are looking to a future of user experience over spec. And the future looks good.
The video shows the Unreal Engine 3 running on an ARM processor. That is an engine that runs major Xbox and PC titles running on a low power processor with easy portability from those platforms to Windows RT.
I made a prediction with a few friends the other day. I predicted that ARM processing would be the dominant player in the PC market and that the desktop experience from Windows, OSX and Linux would be left for the geeks and programmers. This is one half of my vision starting to happen.

Now I only have to wait for the death of the desktop to be proven seer of the technical future.

Edit: I just read through this post and it makes very little sense. I am tired. Time for bed.

Grades

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 19:09:00 +0100

Grades:

“Of all core subjects, the sciences have seen some of the largest improvements in grade attainment. The pass rate, or proportion of entries awarded a C or above, for Biology rose from 60.5% to 93.1% between 1993 and 2011.”

If you’ve come across the Flynn Effect, you’ll know that every generation seems to get a little bit more intelligent than its predecessor. Presumably, you’ll also appreciate that the more a teacher practices teaching a subject, the better they are likely to become.

However, even these two commonly accepted principles might struggle to explain such a rise in grades as that described above. Maybe.

I can also fully appreciate the need to do something about the rise in achievement. As more students achieve the higher grades, it gets more difficult for employers to make informed decisions about candidates - after all, this is the very reason we have grades at all; to differenciate between abilities.

In addition, I like the idea of a single exam board for a subject as it nationalises standards and aligns the practicalities of assessment with the public’s expectations of standardised qualifications.

However, as a teacher, something about Gove’s reforms doesn’t sit well with me. If qualifications are supposed to give us an accurate idea of a pupil’s ability, then why move away from modular assessment to a single examination? In my personal experience, modular assessment provides a more accurate assessment of a student’s ability over time. It doesn’t depend on a single day or a single piece of good luck, but spreads the bets on assessment. The problem of plagiarism has already been approached with the introduction of controlled assessments, which are like mini-exams throughout the year. Moreover, the continued assessment model provides a structure much more similar to the work patterns we experience in adult life - working to important deadlines spread across the year rather than a single day that affects the prospects of the rest of that child’s life. Modular assessment also provides students with encouragement and motivation as they watch their scores add up over the year, giving them an accurate estimate of their final grade and helping them divide up their time and focus to different areas across the curriculum as needed for their own particular targets.

Betting a person’s future prospects on a single day in their education involves so many variables outside of their own control that it would be foolish to do so.

I haven’t seen Gove’s research on which he has based his decision, but it is going to take a lot of convincing for me to approve of these reforms based on this aspect alone.

Gove; show me your working out.

I forget the important things most often

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 19:02:52 +0100

I forget the important things most often

Windows 8: There, I fixed it.

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:28:37 +0100

As I mentioned in a previous post, Windows 8 has been bothering me for its ‘almost there but then it all goes wrong’ approach to the user experience of the interface. So I decided to fix it.

1. Desktop

This is the space where we currently spend most of our time on our present computers. As such, it needs to be really functional as a workspace.

My problem with the desktop is the lack of the Start button - and not because I’m nostalgic about it, but because of how we use computers. So I’ve come up a solution. We don’t want to ignore metro, so let’s put metro into the Start menu. Touch the re-introduced Start orb and full screen metro pops up. But CLICK the orb (with the mouse) and up pops MiniMetro across the bottom of the screen, because the computer recognises you are in super functional desktop working mode. (Click the orb again to launch full screen metro.) Mini metro is like the 30,000 ft view of metro that you get when you pinch the screen; the tiles are simplified, probably just showing the title of the app, but other than that all the shortcuts are arranged as they are in metro so you know exactly where everything is. Underneath the tiles are the titles of your folders or ‘clumps’ of tile. Click on the title of the clump and both title and clump will quickly swish to the left of the minimetro area and you can click on the app you want to launch. This means it is easy to organise apps and quick to get to them with minimum mouse movement (Start orb, up a bit to title, up a bit to app, done). You can click on the windows logo beside the search bar to the left and the minimetro will change from a metro layout to your most frequently used apps in metro layout. Once again, dead quick.

Between the start orb and the titles is the search bar. Type to search apps and they start appearing above in the minimetro area or hit return or click the search icon to launch full search of everything.

On the right side of the screen are the settings buttons and advanced options.

You should be able to click and drag copies of tiles from the minimetro area to the desktop area to create shortcuts there if you want a cluttered desktop.

You should also be able to run full screen metro apps in windows if you launch them from the desktop rather than metro.

Windows should have their main chrome at the side (swap for left handed) so you don’t need to cover the window with you arm to reach the chrome at the top to move the thing around.

Moving windows/icons/files to the bottom of the screen should open up the delete bar.

2. Metro

The metro start screen is going to get difficult to navigate very quickly when it starts filling up with apps. Introducing a Clump Title at the top, displayed in a similar way to xbox UI, would allow quick navigation to tile clumps and so speed up the whole process.

3. Charms and multitasking access

Swipe in from the sides of the screen brings up various menus. So, in desktop mode, move the mouse to the limit of the left of the screen and click and multitasking appears as it would if you had swiped in. Forget about corners, it should be the whole limit of the screen edge, just like it is with touchscreen. Similarly on charms from the right; move the mouse to the right limit and click. This should also be used for menus from the bottom of the screen. Click the top and rather than immediately closing the app, you are given a pop up (or pop down) with a nice big ‘x’, or side by side mode or minimise option. As the future will be tablet and laptop rather than desktop, we should make use of gestures on the trackpad. Swipe in from the left on the trackpad should be the same as swipe in from the left on the screen. (I tested earlier and I mostly start my fingers in the centre of the trackpad and move out from there for normal movement of the curser). Alternatively, use three fingered swipe, left to right to bring up menu on the left side. This sort of use of gestures makes much more sense than it does even on OS X to bring up these sort of menus.

I can’t wait to have a go on Windows 8. Unfortunately I don’t have anything on which to run the consumer beta, so please forgive me if some of this already happens.

But for now, in my mind at least, problem solved.

Edit. After playing around with the prerelease of Windows 8, I have now decided that the desktop can die a long , cold death. Every element of it, bar the programs themselves, becomes superfluous in the new Modern UI. Everything -especially office - needs to move to this new environment. It is a brilliant paradigm and I hope Microsoft pull off the ecosystem to go with it. It could be awesome if it gets the developer support.

Tech

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:26:55 +0100

Yes I’ve realised then maybe some irony in me writing this for the blogging site but I’ve been working out what my problem is with technology I have a natural affinity with technology. I understand how it works I can make it work how I wanted to what to talk about it doesn’t come from a point of frustration the problem is the technology is ever changing it is relentless it’s single most prevalent attribute is that what you get today will be outdated tomorrow. Active hope technology is a tool it should enable us to do things that we would not be able to do it has allowed us to find out information near instantly the world wide Web assessment the information is no longer simply in the hands of those who can afford libraries all people to research on their behalf information now is freely accessible to all. My problem is with the means of access the new iphone came out yesterday it looks brilliant. In 10 years time it will be me a worthless because the paradigm will have changed that is my problem with technology even the best of today will be the garbage of tomorrow. Technology is a treadmill update update update. Antique so easily become more about the product than the person using it. The hammer is so much more pure. I want to become luddite.

Story

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:58:58 +0100

Story:

“Everything has a beautifully long and winding backstory. When you listen for some of those stories, life gets a whole hell of a lot more interesting.”

I love it when beauty is seen in even the most trivial things. There are a lot of amazing stories out there that go unnoticed. I need to start opening my eyes to them more often.

Special

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:54:11 +0100

Special:

“Because the thing is that Harvey is my son, and I honestly believe that he’ll start to go downhill without a school to go to. So like every other parent involved, I’m going to do whatever I can to make it happen. There will be a point when I’ll promote it.” - Katie Price

As much as I dislike the further splitting of education provision in the UK, the creation of special schools with a specific SEN focus or other need does seem appealing. This is different to setting up a school just because you think you can do it better than the experienced professionals ; this is about catering for a specific need.
There is, however, a problem in defining exactly what ‘special’ is. Everyone feels their own child is different and special. But I’m still uncomfortable with a lack of standardised education.
The problem is that fairness is not necessarily the same as equality. Do we work hard to create a system where education across the country is equal, where everyone gets the same opportunity; or do we create an education system that is fair, where the disadvantaged are given the extra help they need to increase the chances that they will come out of the whole thing on a closer level to those who have the advantages outside of school?

Bank A little harsh on the bankers me thinks. Nevertheless, it...

Mon, 14 May 2012 21:56:00 +0100

Bank

A little harsh on the bankers me thinks. Nevertheless, it does make an interesting point about how we use our inventions. As with anything, money can be used for good and bad, depending on WHO it is used for. When we make money to serve our own desires, it tends to end up making us miserable and at its extreme does damage to others.

But I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bath water. Money can do fantastic things when it is used for the benefit of others rather than for ourselves. It can create action where there might otherwise be reluctance to intervene.

What is interesting is that using money in the right way by spending it on others can be more beneficial than spending it on ourselves. In this talk ( http://on.ted.com/C99s ) Michael Norton shows how happiness with money is found most when it is used for someone else.

It’s time to become selfish and stop thinking so selfishly.

Connect

Mon, 14 May 2012 21:24:00 +0100

Connect:

Click the title to read the article

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” - Steve Jobs

This somehow reminds me of what O’Brien says to Winston in 1984: that the best books are those which tell you what you already know. To make connections between things is a beautiful form of creativity because it doesn’t seek to make anything new, but rather makes what is already there better. It may end up seeming obvious, but that just goes to say that there is some kind of truth in it that we can easily recognise.

Dirk Gently would be proud.

Selective

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:24:00 +0100

Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do #TED : http://on.ted.com /C94W

In this video, Foer highlights the wonders of human memory, showing the tips and tricks that make memory world champions, going all the way back to methods from ancient Greece. Memory, it seems, is not an innate gift, but a deliberate act: something that can be learnt - if we are willing to put in the effort.

However, the moment that really stood out was the finale. Foer challenges his audience to remember to remember.

The problem is that making the deliberate effort to remember does take effort; we have to spend time committing things to memory. In a world where we set ourselves up as always strapped for time, I think the greatest challenge of remembering is not the actual act of memorisation, but the decision over WHAT to remember and what to stop doing so we make time to commit that thing to memory; to stop doing and to start remembering.

We are our memories; but I suppose we have to make a decision parts of ourselves we really believe are worth memorising and what are we prepared to give up to make them memorable and what can just be forgotten.

Maybe selective memory has had a bit of a bad press.

Private

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:30:00 +0100

Private:

Click the title to read the article

“I record these achievements not because I wish to either decry the individuals concerned or criticise the schools they attended, far from it… It is undeniable that the individuals I have named are hugely talented and the schools they attended are premier league institutions, but the sheer scale, the breadth and the depth of private school dominance of our society points to a deep problem in our country.”

While I agree that private schools have a dominance when it comes to producing big names in the UK, I think we should be careful not to attribute blame to state schools for where they have not produced ‘greatness’ to the same degree. Even ignoring the advantage that privately educated individuals have from home, both financially and in terms of parental support, the ability of private school to provide excellent classroom environments is because they have the funds to have smaller class sizes and better academic resources while state school funding is being lost.

Yes, I would love state schools to be able to offer the same level of provision as their private school counterparts, but to do so would require a great deal of money; and I don’t think we currently value education enough to meet the funding levels that private schools enjoy, let alone surpass it in order to make up for the shortfall of parental support and extra-curricular experience.

If Gove feels it is a serious problem, I’m afraid that he is not going to be able to do much about it, short of either closing down the private institutions or causing a huge tax hike to pay for his dreams of more equal representation at the top.

For now, Gove, I may share the sentiment, but keep dreaming.

Up I love looking up. It seems to put everything in perspective...

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:03:27 +0100

I love looking up. It seems to put everything in perspective and I end up appreciating the small things I’d normally miss; like the ventilation system in parallel with the light fittings, or the angles of the skylight.

There’s also something else fitting about looking up. It is an angle of optimism and, as the mind tends to follow the action of the body, I think it’s a great posture to adopt. We’ve just got to make sure we occasionally glace down again to help avoid those lampposts.

Out

Sat, 05 May 2012 22:30:29 +0100

Out:

Click the title to follow the link.

In a world of numerous connections it can get difficult to connect.

I like the idea of using games to improve your life rather than distracting from it.

Time to play.

There’s something special about making a child smile....

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:18:55 +0100

There’s something special about making a child smile. It’s a cure for all kinds of wrongs. Well done, well done.

Clockwork

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:19:00 +0000

Clockwork:

Pills to make you less racist?
I read Frazen’s ‘The Corrections’ a while ago. In that novel, chemicals are used to ‘correct’ aspects of characters’ personalities. Just like A Clockwork Orange, there’s a unsettling edge to the idea.
I know that the idea of future filled with mind-altering drugs should be frightening, but in some way I find it quite appealing as a concept. Yes, there’s a potential problem when things go wrong and people start mixing up the drugs or spiking others or engaging in questions of personal responsibility, but if I was offered a drug that would make me better in some way (anyone see Limitless?) I’m pretty sure I’d take it.
The point is that when this sort of technology becomes possible, if you aren’t taking it it doesn’t mean nobody else is. To not take it would become some sort of ethical protest, but you’d be setting yourself at a huge disadvantage in comparison with the rest of ‘high’ society. It would be the same as refusing medical treatment as a protest to the actions of pharmaceutical companies. And as for fears that the system would be open to abuse, well, there’s lready a lot of potential for abuse in the world anyway. We seem to be able to keep nuclear weapons relatively safe, so I’m sure we could find ways to keep a few million pills in correct order.
The only thing that worries me about this sort of technology is the issue of choice. Should we have the right to choose our own state of mind if it is potentially detrimental to others? Should the benefits of chemical brainwashing for the sake of the many come at the cost of choosing to be an idiot for the few?
I think it’s time to read some Burgess again…
tick. tock. tick. tock. tick. tock…

Name

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:40:00 +0000

The ‘new iPad’? Not the iPad 3? The iPad 2S? The iPad HD-super-maxim-3S-plus-prime?

Of course not.

Giving something more and more complex names, even naming them in a linear ‘1, 2, 3’ system shows a lack of belief in the product. What product did Apple release? An iPad. Ah, I’ve heard of that; I can guess they’re trying to improve on what I already know. What did Asus just introduce? A transformer pad infinity 300. Now, I own an original gen transformer and even I’d need to research to find just what that actually means (if anything).

So, all you tech companies, please show a little belief in your product and just name it what it is. The New [insert product here].